The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is America’s oldest trade association of its kind,
representing the business of chemistry—an innovative, $770 billion enterprise that strives to provide solutions to the biggest challenges facing our nation and the world.
ACC is the collective voice and interest of the chemical manufacturing sector and its value chain advancing the industry’s agenda at the global, national, state and local level. ACC is well known for its innovative research and its programs and initiatives that focus on anticipating and preventing accidents, as well as on educating the public about safe use of chemical products.
ACC members have made a voluntary commitment to uphold the highest standards for protecting health, safety, and the environment. ACC is committed to improved environmental, health and safety performance through its Responsible Care® initiative. Members of ACC are required to participate in Responsible Care. Its member companies are also taking a leadership role in ensuring that chemistry facilities are secure. Since 1988, Responsible Care companies have reduced hazardous releases to the air, land and water by more than 76 percent. Between 2008 and 2012, Responsible Care companies also reduced SOx emissions by about 40 percent and reduced NOx emissions by about 22 percent.
ACC’s vision is to “promote and protect the business of chemistry’s leadership in driving innovation, creating jobs and enhancing safety in our performance, processes and products.”
According to the ACC, the business of chemistry:
- Drives innovations that enable a more sustainable future.
- Creates nearly 800,000 manufacturing and high-tech jobs—plus more than six million related jobs—that support families and communities.
- Enhances safety through the products of chemistry and investment in research.
ACC advocates for public policies that will that advance development of groundbreaking products that improve lives and our environment, enhance the economic vitality of communities and protect public health.
ACC is a long-standing NERC Advisory Member, joining in 2003. Stephen Rosario, Senior Director of the Northeast Regional Office for ACC, commented “We support organizations such as NERC and the Toxics in Packaging (TPCH) in order to work with them to advance stakeholder engagement to promote programs that protect our environment while ensuring economic vitality. ACC’s Plastic Division and the plastics industry endorse the practice of conserving resources and minimizing the environmental and health impacts of plastics and plastic products, including the use of environmental and energy-efficiency criteria in product design and purchasing decisions, along with product safety, cost, performance and availability. Since 1990, the plastics industry, as individual companies and through organizations such as ACC’s Plastics Division, has invested more than $2 billion to support increased recycling and educate communities in the United States.”